Multiscale perspectives of fire, climate and humans in western North America and the Jemez Mountains, USA.

ABSTRACT: Interannual climate variations have been important drivers of wildfire occurrence in ponderosa pine forests across western North America for at least 400 years, but at finer scales of mountain ranges and landscapes human land uses sometimes over-rode climate influences. We reconstruct and analyse effects of high human population densities in forests of the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico from ca 1300 CE to Present. Prior to the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, human land uses reduced the occurrence of widespread fires while simultaneously adding more ignitions resulting in many small-extent fires. During the 18th and 19th centuries, wet/dry oscillations and their effects on fuels dynamics controlled widespread fire occurrence. In the late 19th century, intensive livestock grazing disrupted fuels continuity

SUBMITTER: Swetnam TW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4874406 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature